One of the problems that has concerned the newspaper industry for many years is the difficulty of counting inserted newspapers. One of the typical examples of an inserted newspaper is a Sunday edition which includes the news sections in which a large number of inserts such as sections which are typically printed prior to the date of the edition, as well as advertising sections, all of which are inserted into the core newspaper which, for example, incorporates the international, national, and local news, sports and weather. Sections which are not as time sensitive such as a Sunday magazine section, travel section, food section and the like are printed prior to the date that the core section is printed and are inserted into the core section either alone or with advertising sections, typically by inserters. As a result, the newspaper is quite thick and its folded edge, typically referred to as the spine, departs significantly from a sharp, well-defined fold. The sensor which is employed to count signatures, presently utilizes a laser beam to scan the spine (i.e., folded edge) of each inserted newspaper. Laser sensors produce a laser beam having a small diameter, typically on the order of one millimeter. The poor quality and shape of the newspaper containing the aforementioned insertions causes the narrow laser beam to pick up the smallest imperfections such as loose paper, debris, wrinkles, pinholes, and the like, in addition to the spine, resulting in incorrect counts, thereby causing bundles of incorrect counts to be delivered out to the field, generating extra costs due to the extra handling necessary to correct the problem such as making a second delivery to provide additional newspapers due to an undercount or making a delivery to return newspapers originally delivered in bundles having an over-count.
It is therefore extremely advantageous to provide a counting method and apparatus which solves these problems.
It should further be noted that the present invention may be used to count and track signatures that do not have a large amount of inserts or that do not have any inserts, since the invention prevents or substantially eliminates miscounts for signatures be they thick or thin.
It should be noted that the apparatus described herein may be employed to count a variety of printed products such as newspapers, books, magazines, signatures, brochures and these words may be used interchangeably herein without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.